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General Motors, which has been making Buicks and other cars in China since 1998, wants to sell its new Chevrolet Volt, an electric hybrid, on the mainland. That’s fine, Beijing says, if Chinese companies get to share three of the car’s key technologies—the electric motor, electronic controls, and the batteries that store the electric power. Simply put, unless GM discloses what amounts to trade secrets, the Volt won’t qualify for nearly $20,000 in subsidies that China provides for other electric-powered cars. (That’s about half the price of the car in the U.S. market.)

That would put the Volt at an extreme disadvantage in what has been the world’s No. 1 auto market for two years -- total sales last year came to 17 million vehicles. And GM has said publicly that the mainland will be its principal focus in years to come.

Increasingly, China has the world and the global economy over a barrel. Nowhere is this becoming more apparent than in U.S.-China trade as Beijing uses its massive economic power to big-foot American companies.

These days, it’s hard to keep up with all the trade spats erupting between the Americans and Chinese. And as new Ambassador to China Gary Locke (President Obama’s former commerce secretary) settles into his new job, he might logically wonder: What are the rules?

Memo to the ambassador: Don’t bother asking because as far as the Chinese are concerned, there don’t seem to be any. Lots more at http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2011/09/15/Trade-How-China-Is-Bi
g-Footing-US-Companies.aspx#page1

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